1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera control system, etc., adapted for a surveillance camera or a video conference system which is communicating information, for example, through a network.
2. Description of Related Art
A remote surveillance system using a plurality of cameras has heretofore been arranged to use several video cameras, to obtain analog video signals from these video cameras and to supply the analog video signals to a plurality of monitors arranged at a managing apparatus. The remote surveillance system of this kinds has been used within a relatively small building.
Meanwhile, a larger remote surveillance system in which a plurality of cameras are connected to a LAN (local area network) or a public digital network such as an ISDN (integrated services digital network) has been developed to permit a greater number of cameras including cameras located at far distances to be connected to the system.
Camera control systems capable of controlling the cameras of such a remote surveillance system through a network include a camera control system which is arranged to enable each camera operating terminal to display images and to perform camera control through a GUI (graphical user interface) operation by utilizing an apparatus such as a personal computer or a workstation.
An advantage of the above-stated camera control system lies in that the camera control system enables any person who is unaccustomed to the apparatus to easily handle the apparatus. The operability of the camera control system can be enhanced particularly by arranging the camera control system to simultaneously show a display on a monitor of an image picked up by a camera and also a camera control panel provided for control over the camera from which the image is outputted.
Another advantage of the camera control system lies in that a plurality of cameras connected to the network can be visually controlled by using a map which shows thereon allocations of the cameras and camera icons indicative of the image pickup directions of the cameras.
However, the map showing the allocations of the cameras and the camera icons have been arranged to show the cameras only in a state of being viewed from above. The conventional camera control system is, therefore, not usable for controlling the postures of the cameras in the tilting directions, though it permits control in the panning directions of the cameras.